Each month, we’re bringing you a breakdown of startups’ journeys building on Solana, as well as noteworthy blockchain and ecosystem updates.
Was this forwarded to you? Subscribe here.
The Latest Solana Sessions Podcast: Andrea Miele, Co-Founder/CEO of Beezie, The growing tokenized collectible landscape
This episode is part of the Solana Sessions podcast series by Token Relations and the Talking Tokens podcast, where we dive into the startups and founders building on Solana. Check out the podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and YouTube.
In this episode of Solana Sessions, we sat down with Andrea Miele, co-founder and CEO of Beezie, to discuss how its building a tokenized collectibles platform for the everyday consumer, why trading cards were the entry point rather than the end goal, and how a new partnership with one of the world's largest luxury resellers is meant to bring a different kind of buyer onchain.
Beezie is bringing all types of collectibles onchain
Beezie, a tokenized collectibles platform on Solana, has generated approximately $200 million in volume and $100 million in revenue since launching in late 2023. Rather than tokenizing assets and leaving users to trade wrapped claims, the company says it builds around everyday consumer behavior that already exists, where it runs a digital claw machine that users can buy a blind box in order to reveal and redeem a physical version of the same item.
Andrea Miele, CEO and co-founder of Beezie, claims that framing is why trading cards worked as the platform’s first venture. "You're not changing the behavior of what the consumer does in real life when they're opening a pack of cards," she said. "It's the same behavior. You're just supercharging it, making it more efficient and adding the liquidity layer in."
How Beezie looked to differentiate itself was by offering buyers an instant buyback of up to 92% of fair market value on any reveal, which most users accepted repeatedly until they hit the item they were chasing. The platform disclosed the odds and machine contents to be publicly visible before purchase, and inventory can be redeemed globally under a nearly three-year vaulting partnership with Brinks.
Beezie is now extending beyond just trading cards, into luxury, through The Luxury Closet, brokered by Middle East Venture Partners. Rather than authenticate in-house, the company says it will rely on the reseller for sourcing. The impetus behind this was less an expansion than a delayed launch, as luxury resale was the market Miele originally set out to fix and cards served as the wedge into it. Secondhand luxury has grown close to 400% since 2020, driven by millennial and Gen Z women, against an existing onchain audience skewed male and aged 18 to 40. "Luxury resale in general, I think not necessarily wrong, but what could be more efficient?" Miele said. "For twenty-five years or so, it's sort of been search, click, add to cart, buy it. That hasn't changed."
That framing suggests the inventory is interchangeable. Beezie's position is that the mechanic itself is the product, and that the chase works the same regardless of what sits at the end of it. "We are selling discovery and a feeling," Miele said. "When you come on the site, whether you're chasing a Pokémon card or a Birkin or an experience, that particular mechanic doesn't change. It's the chase."
Miele said experiences are the next category the company wants to test, pointing to concert tickets and sporting events as things buyers already chase but cannot easily resell. For Beezie, Miele says the near-term measure of success is reaching that audience without surfacing the infrastructure. "We've done everything to abstract the blockchain that we could," Miele said. "We really want you to feel like, wait, I had no idea that I was using an onchain platform."
The Biggest Updates on Solana
Look into the biggest announcements, developments and more happening within the Solana ecosystem.
Solana saw strong RWA performance over the past 30 days, with distributed asset value improving to $4.26B (+8%), the number of holders rising to 510.2K (+49.2%), and transfer volume growing to $4.4B (+34.5%).
Ten equities were tokenized on Solana so far in September: Grindr, Hertz, Sphere Entertainment, Nike, AMC Entertainment, GoPro, Wendys, DraftKing, Palatin Technologies, Schwab U.S. REIT ETF.
OpenCover expanded its risk-transfer infrastructure to Solana. Users who deposit funds into Kamino, Raydium, Orca or Jupiter can now buy coverage that pays out if something goes wrong with the protocol, such as a hack or a bug that wipes out their position.
World launched a prediction market on Solana, letting users bet on the outcome of real-world events across sports, politics, crypto, economics and culture. Markets are priced as yes/no contracts and use Chainlink to supply the data used to resolve outcomes automatically.
Pumpfun released Custom Pairs to its launchpad, enabling token developers to pair tokens with tokenized stocks or crypto majors.
That’s all for now. Catch you again next month!
Hit reply and let us know how we did! What was your favorite part of the newsletter? Our founder reads every response.
To get this newsletter delivered to your inbox, subscribe here:
This product was built by StrataMedia.
This information is for entertainment purposes only. It should not be considered financial advice, nor should it be used to make investment decisions. Cryptocurrencies are high risk and you should consult a financial professional before making any financial decisions. Make sure you do your own research.